Engineering Safety in Design

Bo Hu
John Nieber
 Safety
• Damage from an unsafe process or product
– A defective automobile brake system:
• Collision: driver, passengers, other drivers, pedestrains,
vehicles, buildings, other facilities
• Customer and employee lawsuits, criminal penalties
• Unethical
 Safety hazards
• Life cycle of the products
– Manufacturing
– Use
– Retirement
• Hazard: sources of danger
– Fire and explosions
– Toxic release and dispersion models
– Entrapment
– Contact (hot surface)
– Impact (machine part collide with body part)
– Ejection (dangerous debris particles)
– Entanglement (hair or loose clothing)
– Noise and vibration
– Heat or cold
– Radiation, inhaled fibers
– Bacteria, fungi, molds, insects, bites etc
 Legal Responsibility
• Product liability
– Civil action
– Criminal action
• Occupational liability
– Occupational Health and Safety Act of 1970
 Prevention through Design
• “Addressing occupational safety and health
needs in the design process to prevent or
minimize the work-related hazards and risks
associated with the construction,
manufacture, use, maintenance, and disposal
of facilities, materials, and equipment.”
(NIOSH)
 Benefits of Safety by Design
• Reduced site hazards  fewer injuries and
fatalities
• Reduced workers compensation premiums
• Increased productivity
• Fewer delays due to accidents during construction
allow continued focus on quality
• Encourages designer-constructor collaboration
 Approaches
• Techniques to prevent fires and explosions
– Inerting
– Well ventilated
• Relief devices
• Material safety and data sheet (MSDS)
– http://hazard.com/msds
– http://www.ilpi.com/msds
• Hazards identification and risk assessment
 Hazard Analysis
• Causal analysis
– involves identifying various cause-effect sequences of
hazardous events that may combine to cause the
identified hazards.
• Consequence analysis
– identifies the sequences of events that could lead
from a hazard to an accident or incident.
• A safety case
– relates to the assurance that the system is relatively
safe.
 Guidelines for Engineering Design for
Process Safety
• Inherently Safer Plants
• Plant Design
• Equipment Design
• Materials Selection
• Piping Systems
• Heat Transfer Fluid Systems
• Thermal Insulation
• Process Monitoring and Control
• Documentation
• Sources of Ignition
• Electrical System Hazards
• Deflagration and Detonation Flame Arresters
• Pressure Relief Systems
• Effluent Disposal Systems
• Fire Protection
• Explosion Protection
 Homework V
• Identifying the possible hazards in your process
• Check the safety lists provided at Page 44, Guidelines for
Engineering Design for Process Safety; and discuss the
possibilities to make your projected process inherent safe
process
• Topic Discussion: It is a commonly acknowledged that
safety should be placed in the top priority in the
engineering design; However, many barriers are slowing
this effort in the field, for example 1. Fear of undeserved
liability for worker safety; 2. Increase both direct and
overhead costs for designers industries; 3. Few design
professionals possess sufficient expertise in construction
safety. Please play a role and provide suggestions on how
we as a society to address this problem?
 Safety Hierarchy
• Eliminate the hazard
• Protect against the hazard
• Warn against the hazard
• Provide training
• Provide personal protection
 Safety Design Principles
• Safe-life design principle
• Fail-safe design principle
• Redundant design principle
 Barrier: Designers' Fear of Liability
• Barrier: Fear of undeserved liability for worker safety.
• Criminal actions: Fail to
– Perform appropriate analysis
– Comply with published standards
– Make use of state-of-the-art technology, owing to ignorance
– Include reasonable safety features or devices
– Take into account how the user might misuses the product
– Consider hidden dangers that might surprise the user
– Consider variations in materials, manufacturing processes, or
effects of wear
– Carry out appropriate testing, or interpret results correctly
– Provide adequate warnings.
 Barrier: Increased Designer Costs
• Barrier: Safety before design processes will
increase both direct and overhead costs for
designers.
 Barrier: Designers' Lack of Safety
Expertise
• Barrier: Few design professionals possess
sufficient expertise in construction safety.